Further Debate on the Drinking Age Issue
A year ago I wrote a post about parents buying alcohol for their teens. I talked about why I don’t think that’s a good idea for several different reasons; it’s illegal, a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed, and we can teach moderation in other ways.
Today I read an article about a New York couple who was convicted of allowing their teenage son to have drinking parties at their house. Their 17-year-old son is serving a 2 to 7 year prison term for being the drunk driver in a car accident that caused the death of two teenage girls. Reading this made me feel even more confident in my decision to not buy alcohol for my teenagers.
Earlier this evening I was talking to my mom about this issue. We were talking about the legality of underage drinking. She mentioned that she’s not against somebody breaking a law they disagree with as long as they are willing to go to jail for their convictions. I don’t necessarily disagree with her. Testing unfair laws is exactly how we make change. Without John Peter Zenger’s bravery we might still be biting our tongue in fear of insulting the King. Without Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat to a white person we may still be living in segregation.
However, I’m not sure any of us really have that same passion for the drinking age issue. There is a lot of good data from well respected sources that shows why the age of 21 was chosen as the legal drinking age. There are also a lot of good arguments for why the drinking age should be lowered. But right now the age is 21. And I’m not willing to go to jail for this issue. I hope my kids aren’t either.
To me that’s terrible parenting. Not so much from giving the kids alcohol, but from allowing them to drive. I don’t think buying alcohol is horrible — since at least as a parent you can supervise somewhat how much they drink, and at least it means they aren’t hiding it from you — but there should definitely be groundrules, and not driving after drinking should be the most obvious of them all.
“I don’t necessarily disagree with her.” Does this mean you don’t necessarily agree with me either
I actually am not willing to go to jail to lower the drinking age either. I have somewhat mixed feelings about the drinking age, having lived thru the drinking age being 21, then 19, then 18 when I was a teenager (before it went back up to 21). I can see both sides of the issue and am generally a person who believes in less government regulation.
Having grown up with an alcoholic father, though, I tend to be a very light drinker myself. And, I see too much abuse of the substance to be comfortable with pushing back on this law.
Now, there are other laws that I might consider going to bat for
Mom
My husband was one of those for whom alcohol was bought. Not his parents, but his best friend’s mother would regularly (we’re talking every weekend, here, even some week days) provide her son and all his friends with whatever alcohol they wanted. She was the "Cool Mom", rated even higher in their eyes because she made them turn their keys in as they walked through the door.
Years later, she has passed, the victim of cirrhosis, and other complications of her alcoholism. And my husband is a recovering alcoholic who nearly killed himself (nobody else was hurt, thank God) in a car wreck last year. Our whole family is paying now.
Studies have shown that alcohol arrests the maturity of the brain at the age when the heavy drinking occurred. Which means that these parents who serve alcohol (and I’m not talking about a celebratory or ceremonial glass of wine) to minors are dooming those individuals to a lifetime of immature behavior. Which might be just fine for the drinker, but can weigh heavily on the family.
Yeah, this one hits a little close to home.
Now… you want me to go to jail protesting OTHER laws? You bet. Let’s start with airport screening and the TSA…
So many lives ruined- and for what? Alcohol? It’s more than a shame; it’s a colossal tragedy.
I’ll add that my major gripe on all of this dialed down demographic with the alcohol scene is media and marketing’s role in normalizing the cues to ever-younger ages…middleschoolers, etc.I vented about the binge drinking on ABC Family’s ‘Greek’ on Shaping Youth here: http://blog.shapingyouth.org/?p=565 among several others, only to find that now teen stores like Claire’s (well, ‘Icing by Claire’s’ their division of same) is offering girlie girl alcohol flasks in au couture fashionista style:
Chicago Sun Times piece here:
http://tinyurl.com/bal4mk
Time to do an interview with the Marin Institute and their facts-n-figures about alcopops and early marketing to teens…esp. when medical studies SHOW brain formation and addiction habits STICK much more prevalently in these tender years…There was a reason they banned Joe Camel’s ‘get ‘em while they’re young’ approach to addiction…
Same song, second verse…the least we can do as a society is to quit normalizing and glamorizing same, since we’ll be paying the health costs down the road, guaranteed.
It’s not like the supporters of 21 had any right to impose it on Mr. and Mrs. Twenty, who never consented to it. Furthermore, the government controls the level of carnage on the roads as precisely as it controls the sales tax rate, by setting the penalties and enforcement levels. If you think people under 21 are protected by this blatantly unjust law, see my web page which is linked from this post.